The use of acids and acidic chemicals for killing deleterious organic organisms, such as bacteria, germs, and viruses is well known in the art. Chlorine or hydrochloric acid is especially useful as a bactericide and is used universally as a cleaning agent.
Bacteria play an important role in the deterioration of human foodstuffs. Foods such as fish are particularly susceptible to rapid deterioration, especially at room temperature, and compounds for the preservations of foods or the retardation of bacteria growth have been employed in the past. One of the problems with such compounds is that in certain increased levels, they can be toxic to human beings, thereby defeating the purpose of preserving the foodstuffs.
Because of the extremely acidic nature of some of the bactericides and viricides that have been utilized in the past, oftentimes they can cause skin irritation or other side effects for human begins coming in contact with these compositions, or can even be fatal if accidentally consumed. Chlorine has had other negative implications in terms of the environment, and has not been environmentally friendly because of the release of chlorine gas into the environment.
The present invention provides for a composition of matter and the method of making it that produces a composition that operates in a very low pH range to provide toxicity to bacteria, viruses, and certain malignant cells that attack human skin dermatologically, while at the time proving to be nontoxic to human beings and not harmful to healthy human cells.
The use of the invention has been found to be helpful as a bactericide for preserving fresh food items, such as fish, for long periods of time without toxically endangering the food product, and has also been found useful as a dermatological composition to reduce or eliminate melanoma of the skin as a skin care product.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,989,595 and 6,242,011 B1 to Cummins, an acidic composition of matter is disclosed that is useful for destroying microorganisms that spoil food, such as fish. The composition of matter, patented by Cummins, is expandable to include additional reactants that provide a very low pH acidic composition that is nontoxic to human beings and not harmful to healthy human cells.
Headlines in 2005 regarding the avian flu in various countries and the threat of a global pandemic encourages consideration of the use of the acidic, non-toxic composition of the present invention to decrease the concentration of ammonia gases in open chicken pens. The ammonia gas, from chicken waste, acts as an irritant to the lungs of the fowl making them vulnerable to infection by the deadly virus that causes avian flu. The present invention can provide a two-fold benefit for chickens or fowl in open pens. First, by converting ammonia to a harmless salt, the free ammonia gas no longer irritates the lungs of penned birds; the birds will have a stronger immune system and will be less susceptible to the flu virus. Second, when ammonia is converted to a harmless salt, the feet pads of the birds or fowl will not have chemical ammonia burns causing the birds to become inactive and develop pneumonia from inactivity.